Download the pdf
(version 1.0)
Watch Making Materiality Matter exercise examples here.
“As a boy I used to photograph the TV screen because I wanted these images of certain moments and that was the only way I could imagine how to do it. And off of that, it evolved…[The work] doesn’t need to be glossy. You can also show the process of working with film material. You don’t have to hide it; the process of that is revealing.”
—Johannes Binotto (2019)
The Video Essay Podcast, Episode 9
Part of an exploratory series, this exercise is designed to encourage feminist citational practices in which the process is envisioned as a means of public thinking through a media object without the pressure of polish or publishing. In other words, we encourage you to embrace the mess of discovering through doing to see where it can take you on the timeline.
Prompt: Inspired by Johannes Binotto and his Practices of Viewing series (2021-2023), this videographic exercise focuses attention on the materiality of media in the practice of material thinking. With an attention to process and original content creation, makers should consider how they come into contact with audiovisual texts.
Consider: How do you interact with your media object? What does thinking materially do both to the media object and to your analysis? What does intentional depiction of the process of making reveal about your media objects?
Guidelines
- Presence of the process within the final piece
- Focus on a single idea e.g. Muted, Screenshot, Pause, Scratch
- Integration of original footage and/or sound
- A focus on materiality, for example physical contact with your media object
- Cite Johannes Binotto as a source of inspiration in your credits
- 60 seconds – 3 mins long
This exercise was devised by Lucy Fife Donaldson, Colleen Laird, Dayna McLeod, and Alison Peirse as part of Ways of Doing (2023).
Version 1.0: This exercise was published on June 15, 2024. The pdf is a printable version of this page.